


Wonder Boy

by redbluezero



Series: Red's SAO Prideweek 2020 Fics [4]
Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga), ソードアート・オンライン - 川原礫 | Sword Art Online - Kawahara Reki, メタ・メタボリック | Meta Metabolic - Kawahara Reki
Genre: Trans Character, Trans Male Character, Transwakening, also there's a timeskip sorry, but its important to the prompt, implied pining, the first half of the fic is just them roleplaying i am so sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:34:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25855972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redbluezero/pseuds/redbluezero
Summary: Thirteen year old Shino's hobby is roleplaying as Pudding from the hit light novel series Meta Meta Pudding. One day, the boy behind Pudding's friend, Tiramisu, asks a seemingly harmless question— and changes Shino's life.
Series: Red's SAO Prideweek 2020 Fics [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864996
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5
Collections: SAO Pride Week 2020





	Wonder Boy

**Author's Note:**

> Written for day four - knight in shining armor.
> 
> Discretion: Shino's name changes halfway through the fic. Hopefully it doesn't throw you off now that you know.

_“Requesting back up! I’ve chased the Extraterrestrial Aggressor all the way to the Tokyo Dome! I can only hold it off for a bit longer, so please hurry!” Global Interceptor Twelve, code-named Pudding, shouted into her transceiver. She opened her gloved fist and shot out a light beam from her palm. It rammed into the dinosaur-like creature and sliced through its dull, gray scales. It bellowed in pain and began to flail about frantically. Its tail smacked right into a nearby apartment complex and destroyed it._

_“Crap! That one’s coming out of my paycheck…” Pudding grumbled. She recharged her power glove and aimed at the EA once again. It was trapped between the rubble of the building it’d just toppled. She used that to her advantage and shot at it while it was down. She managed to blast three consecutive light beams into the EA before kneeling down to recharge again._

_Pudding hadn’t anticipated that her enemy could_ also _use long range attacks._

_Its maw opened wide, displaying two rows of sharp fangs, and light pooled from deep in its throat. She’d been a GI for long enough to recognize that the EA was charging up a devastating special attack. She couldn’t run; the radius of the attack was big enough to nick her even in the best scenario. Instead, she calmly accepted her fate…_

_“Look out!”_

_The EA’s head suddenly exploded into tiny bits and pieces. The top half of its face charred right off, leaving only its shredded lower jaw. It managed to roar with whatever part of its throat it had left, though, to signify that it was still a threat while headless._

_However, it failed to catch Pudding’s attention; she instead looked up at the bright blue sky in hopes of identifying her savior. It was none other than Global Interceptor 6, code-named Tiramisu._

_“You almost died there, you dork!” he shouted from high in the air. He slowly pivoted down to the street, keeping his eyes on the EA at all times. He then scanned the scene, clicking his tongue in disappointment upon noticing the ruins of the apartment complex, then finally looked at Pudding. He put a firm hand on her shoulder._

_“You ought to keep your head when you’re out on the field,” Tiramisu advised with a stern face. It wasn’t a scowl, though; he seemed genuinely concerned for her well being._

_“Thank you for saving me. I didn’t know you cared,” Pudding teased, despite the fact that her own heart was pounding. She’d never had someone act like that toward her, not in her time with the GI organization and certainly not before. It was… suspicious, once she gave it a second thought._

_“Why do you?”_

_“Because I love you!” Tiramisu shouted. His fists were balled and his face was all scrunched up, but beyond his disgruntled body language was a quiet blush. He didn’t look at Pudding, no, he was far too embarrassed to do so._

_“You… what?” she asked._

_“I want you to stay safe so that, once this is all over, I can ask you out for real,” Tiramisu confessed, “I wanna check out Ganymede with you, since EA No. 59 said it was a nice place. I wanna take you to the Milky Way on a holiday!” He shouted it with vigor, yet it still sounded sincere. Well, he was baring his soul to his colleague in the middle of the battlefield. Things didn’t get more sincere than that._

_“Until then, please let me be your knight in shining armor!”_

_Pudding smiled. Her heart, once as frigid as Pluto, finally felt warm._

_“Alright… even though you’re technically just a GI in formal attire.”_

Shino grinned giddily to herself as she hit “enter” on the keyboard. She felt proud of her witty closing line and hoped that her roleplay partner would, too. She was better at writing comebacks than she was at writing ships, anyway. She only gave it a shot because, since she usually decided the plots, she’d let her online friend decide the plot. He chose a Pudding x Tiramisu roleplay because “Most _Meta Meta Pudding_ fans don’t care about their obviously canon romance and I’m sick of it!”

_tiramisu4299: I liked that last bit a lot._

_pudding8219: Thank you very much. You did good too._

_tiramisu4299: Nah, thank_ you. _I’ve been itching for Pudding x Tiramisu content._

_pudding8219: So youve said on numerous occasions. *laughs*_

_tiramisu4299: Sorry, I know most guys don’t care for romance._

Shino didn’t correct him when he called her a guy. Strangely enough, it made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. One could say that she even liked it.

_tiramisu4299: Oh, that reminds me. I’ve been meaning to ask you something._

She froze up, worried about what her online friend could possibly want. When her grandparents started letting her use the family computer, they’d lectured her on stranger danger. They told her to never reveal any private information online, no matter how much the other person asked or how trustworthy they seemed. Not like she trusted anybody on the internet— or in real life, for that matter.

_tiramisu4299:_ Are _you a dude? I just assumed that you were._

Shino let out a sigh of relief. She could reveal that much, at least. He wasn’t asking her real name or address or anything. She’d never, ever share those things with somebody online.

_pudding8219: Im a girl._

Gone would be the days of her online friend calling her a fellow dude. Her chest tightened upon hitting the “enter” key, as if she… disliked that fact. She quickly sent a follow-up message about the strange sensation, then took a sip from the aloe vera juice bottle that sat next to her on the desk.

_pudding8219: Admitting im a girl makes me feel disgruntled._

_tiramisu4299: Do you not like being called one?_

Shino almost choked on her drink. She gulped it down quickly, coughing a few times afterward, before reading the message again to make sure her eyes weren’t deceiving her. She had, indeed, read it correctly the first time. But what sort of question was that? And why… was it so on point?

_pudding8219: Yeah i dont like it in the slightest._

_tiramisu4299: Me neither._

Shino raised an eyebrow, confused.

_pudding8219: Well obviously since youre a boy._

_tiramisu4299: That’s not what my family registry says._

She raised her other eyebrow, shocked.

_pudding8219: Are your parents forcing you to be a boy?_

_tiramisu4299: No, society is forcing me to be a girl._

_pudding8219: Uh i still dont get it._

_tiramisu4299: I’m transgender! I only realized recently, but I definitely am._

Shino hurriedly opened up a new tab to Google what the word “transgender” meant. The definition that popped up didn’t make much sense, saying something about people “who have a social life opposite to their biological sex”. It helped her get what tiramisu4299 was doing, but not really who he was. Upon clicking the first link, though, she came upon the explanation of “when one’s gender does not match up with the one they were assigned at birth”, which made more sense to her. It was less rigid than “opposite” and more broad than “social life” and, most of all, hit closer to home. At that moment, it all clicked.

Shino gulped hard, bracing herself as she began to type her next message. Her small fingers maneuvered in a slightly different manner than usual, selecting one word differently.

_pudding8219: I think i might be too._

_tiramisu4299: I had a hunch._

Shino’s eyes widened. He didn’t like being seen through to begin with, but how could someone he’d never even met in person know something so personal about him?

_pudding8219: How did you know?_

_tiramisu4299: My father wants me to be a doctor. I have to learn how to treat all sorts of patients. I read about transgender patients, then transgender people, then realized that’s who I am._

He facepalmed.

_pudding8219: No i meant how did you know id say that?_

_tiramisu4299: Oh._

_tiramisu4299: Well, you just reminded me of who I was a few months ago, is all. I’ve got transgender radar, transdar for short._

Shino breathed out a sigh of relief. He felt a bit dumb for getting riled up over a hunch when the rationale was so simple. He felt really dumb for not noticing that he was trans himself, but he shrugged and told himself that there was a time and place for everything.

_pudding8219: Transdar? *laughs* Cool._

_tiramisu4299: So I guess you’re questioning now. Sorry in advance for all the identity crises you’re going to have._

He wanted to mention that he’d had several in the past two years, but he held back his tongue (or, rather, his fingertips). His online friend didn’t need to know that.

_tiramisu4299: Don’t rush it, though. I thought about my gender for a while._

_pudding8219: How long?_

_tiramisu4299: A month, I think._

_pudding8219: Wow thats quite the duration of time for your introspections._

_tiramisu4299: Very funny._

Shino chuckled to himself. He was glad that tiramisu4299 was trying to give him advice, even though he’d already been more than helpful. It was admirable. However, Shino was more than sure of himself already. He’d always had a feeling that he was a boy, he just never had the words to explain it. His online friend had simply given him those words.

_pudding8219: All jokes aside thank you very much._

_tiramisu4299: You’re welcome._

“Shino, are you done with the computer? I have some electronic mail to send,” Shino’s grandmother suddenly called from the living room. She sounded excited, so he figured that she’d won a bet with one of the other neighborhood grandmothers and wanted to rub in her victory. Typical old lady things. Suddenly he was glad that he'd never be an old _lady._

“Uh, yeah, give me five more seconds!” Shino yelled back. He hated to have such an important conversation end so quickly, but it _was_ a family computer. There was nothing he could do other than delete his search history and log out of the chat website. He sent one last message to his online friend.

_pudding8219: Sorry my grandma needs the computer i gotta go now._

_tiramisu4299: No worries, talk to you later. Good luck with your life._

Shino understood that, despite the odd word choice, tiramisu4299 was simply wishing him the best when it came to figuring out his gender identity. However, it almost seemed as though he anticipated his disappearance from the internet.

* * *

The butterflies in Utahiko’s stomach began to flutter about the second he walked into the classroom. A part of him feared that, as soon as he stepped through the door, he’d see the kids from his middle school. He pushed up his glasses and scanned the area. Thankfully, he didn’t recognize a single face in the room. His plan to get as far away from Tohoku as possible had finally come to fruition. He was free.

Utahiko walked further into the classroom and took a seat in the second row closest to the window, near the back. The chair was hard and uncomfortable, but he didn’t mind. He took a quick glance at the teacher’s desk; there was nobody there yet, so he got out the book he’d received from his grandparents as a going away present.

“Is that the latest volume of the _Meta Meta Pudding_ series?” a giddy voice asked. Utahiko hadn’t even gotten a chance to open the book and he’d already been interrupted. _City kids have no manners,_ he thought to himself before turning to his right.

The boy next to him had short, brown hair, a round face, and an enthusiastic smile. He gazed intently at the book, whose cover had the titular Pudding and her love interest, Tiramisu, on it. They were smiling and making a heart shape with their hands.

“Yeah… You can kinda tell from the title,” Utahiko replied after a moment. He didn’t understand why someone who could read would ask that, so he was curt with his words. The boy didn’t seem to mind his frigid attitude, though, as his grin only grew.

“Oh man, this cover makes me so happy. Most _Meta Meta Pudding_ fans didn’t care about their obviously canon romance and I was so sick of it that I almost gave up on the ship. Glad that I didn’t, though!” he explained triumphantly. Utahiko was about to go into listening mode and let him ramble, since he was impartial to the romantic aspect of the series, when he noticed something. He’d heard— no, read those words somewhere before. He thought back, long and hard, until it came to him.

_tiramisu4299: Most_ Meta Meta Pudding _fans don’t care about their obviously canon romance and I’m sick of it!_

Utahiko’s mouth went agape. The similarity between the two was uncanny. The way they delightedly approached fellow fans, their fixation on the ship, and even the way they spoke (or rather, typed). It was also too good to be true, but… it was worth a shot.

“Did you used to roleplay with the handle tiramisu4299?”

The boy’s jaw dropped. He glanced around the classroom, particularly at a pair of boys with soccer bags hung over their arms, then replied,

“Y-Yeah, how’d you know?”

“I used to roleplay with the handle pudding8219,” Utahiko replied. He didn’t smile often, so the sides of his mouth hurt a little when he grinned. It was a good pain, though. He’d been reunited with someone who’d given him comfort in times of need. He had a friend in the uncomfortable city of Tokyo.

“No way! I can’t believe we’re in the same class after so long,” the boy exclaimed, “Though I’m glad you managed to get a definitive answer to your question.” He said that last part a bit quieter, then eyed Utahiko’s torso up and down with a soft smile. Utahiko frowned, uncomfortable with being looked at so intently, until he realized that it was his school uniform being scrutinized. He was wearing the standard boy’s jacket (along with pants).

“Yes, I definitely did,” Utahiko chuckled. He hadn’t thought of it before, but he really _had_ come a long way. He moved to the city all by himself to deal with his trauma, true, but he’d also managed to attend high school as a boy. That was an amazing feat in and of itself, even if his grandparents helped him a bit by arguing with the principal over the phone. A sense of pride filled Utahiko’s chest, which reminded him that he ought to return the compliment… and make a formal introduction, at that.

“You’re not too shabby yourself,” he pointed out, “By the way, my name is Asada Utahiko. It’s nice to meet you.” He gave a small thumbs up, which he’d been doing instead of shaking hands for the past five years.

“Right, names! Mine is Shinkawa Kyouji, nice to meet you IRL,” the boy introduced himself with a weak laugh. He scratched the back of his head haphazardly. His vibrant grin, which had not once left his face, started to grow on Utahiko. _He’s actually kinda ho—_

“Hey, country boy! Do you need someone to show you around after school? I know all the best hangout spots in this town!” A high-pitch voice shook him from his thoughts. Though Utahiko once again took note that city kids had no manners, he was grateful for the girl’s interruption. His thoughts about Kyouji had started to drift into weird territory, and he needed a tour guide anyway. Just as he was about to respond, though, Kyouji himself butted in.

“Oh, buzz off, Endou! Everyone knows that you just want dibs on his apartment, we all saw it on the class registry,” he told her off with a raised voice. He stood in front of Utahiko like a barricade. The girl clicked her tongue.

“So now the loser wants to preach to us? What a joke,” she spat before stomping back to her desk. Once she sat down, she gave him the middle finger. In just a few seconds, she had gone from friendly to outright mean. Utahiko blinked a few times, bewildered.

“How did you know that she wanted something from me?” he asked softly after a minute or two.

“I’ve been in the same class as her for years now, haha. She’s only gotten worse, mind you,” Kyouji replied with a weak chuckle. He was still smiling.

“In that case, thank you,” Utahiko replied, ignoring that fact. He expressed his gratitude as though he were on autopilot.

“No need, you couldn’t have known. You’ve yet to get used to the city, after all!” Kyouji reassured him. He gave the other boy a playful nudge on the arm. Utahiko tried to ignore the way his heart skipped a beat at that.

“You can say that again…” he sighed wearily. _Right, focus! The city is bad, the country is good except for the people. That’s what’s important here. Not my old online friend’s cute smile and soft touch. He’s nice, but I bet he’s not romantic. Not at all—_

“Until then, please let me be your knight in shining armor!” Kyouji said in a high pitched voice. He was clearly mimicking something… no, someone. He was mimicking the words he’d typed as Tiramisu all those years ago. Of course he wasn’t romantic, he was corny! Utahiko burst into laughter upon realizing the reference, his chuckles echoing throughout the classroom.

“Alright… Even though you’re technically just a GI in formal attire,” he finished cheerfully once he’d caught his breath. He didn’t notice the delicate tingling flowing throughout his chest, if only because it was familiar. It was what he felt whenever he roleplayed all those years ago, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> "Red for the love of god stop referencing meta metabolic!" Never.  
> The prompt really got away from me here. I was originally going to write something about Shino's mom helping her little boy express himself better (since Shino's all about protecting her and the prompt is knight in shining armor) but my hand just took over and made write Kyoushino sorry


End file.
